Just 2 weeks with the ASUS ROG Ally X changed how I game forever, but is it worth RM4,299?

I’ve always been more of a PC gamer (Facebook’s FarmVille was my jam), but growing up, I used to have a handheld gaming console that I loved very much.

It was the foldable baby pink Nintendo 3DS, and it made me feel like the coolest girl ever when I flipped it upon and yanked out the stylus.

But I must say, the NDS has got nothing on the ASUS ROG Ally X.

For the past two weeks, I have been obsessively playing the ROG Ally X, so much so that it might be a health hazard. But that’s not so much the console’s fault than just my own discipline issues. Not to worry, I’ve managed to strike a balance now.

Well, that, and the fact that I will be tearfully parting ways with the device soon.

So, having racked up a worrying number of hours in gametime over the past two weeks, here’s my review of the ROG Ally X.

A major upgrade from its predecessor

Of course, I won’t compare ROG Ally X’s specs with the 32-bit NDS, but rather, its direct predecessor, the ROG Ally, which was the first-ever handheld console ROG released.

There are definitely huge buffs that the Ally X got, with one of the most important ones (at least to me) being the 80Wh battery. That’s double the battery life of the ROG Ally, which had a battery life of 40Wh.

The ROG Ally X now also supports up to 1TB of storage space and a RAM of 24GB. Its joysticks are more than twice as durable, with tighter springs and supporting up to five million cycles. The speakers are louder, there’s an additional USB-C port, and the fan is stronger. Basically, everything is bigger and better.

Compared to other handheld gaming consoles on the market (like the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch), the ROG Ally X is pretty darn impressive as well. At least, that seems to be the case on paper. Does the ROG Ally X actually live up to high expectations?  

Intuitive and powerful performance

Despite my measly experience with gaming consoles, the ROG Ally X was quite intuitive. Yes, there was a slight bit of a learning curve in the beginning, but just one gaming session in, I was already quite familiar with the layout.

You might think, though, wouldn’t my obsession be with the game itself, and not the console? Well, just to give a bit of context, the biggest barrier between me and gaming is the time and effort it takes to boot up my laptop and subsequently the game (and the fact that my laptop kind of sucks).

With the ROG Ally X, though, the inertia to just go home and start gaming is so little. In fact, I can (and have) played on the train. It’s that easy and portable.

Aside from playing my favourite farming simulator, I also booted up Black Myth: Wukong (shout out to my cousin for the loan). I don’t often play action RPGs because, well, skill and equipment issues, but playing it on the ROG Ally X was so fun.

Now, it definitely doesn’t play as well as a powerful PC setup, but the performance was rather smooth, though there were some dropped frames during cut scenes. Admittedly, the rendering of the graphics left a little to be desired, especially when it comes to all that fur and hair on the characters.

Aside from that, I loved the vibrant colours, but I do think the peak brightness (500 nits) could go up further, especially as I sometimes find myself gaming outdoors. This has something to do with the fact that the display isn’t OLED, but rather just an LCD screen.

On the other hand, the speakers were loud and full, allowing for maximum immersion even without headphones.

I’m definitely grateful for the battery upgrade because it felt like it was draining so much. But then again, that was because I was playing it for hours on end, so what did I expect?

With that, the console also got quite warm at some point, but never unbearably so. It was easy to toggle between performance modes, so upping the fan speed only took a couple of taps.

The verdict

As you can tell, I really loved my time with the ROG Ally X, so much so that I really am considering whether to purchase it myself.

The biggest obstacle standing between me and my desire to own an ROG Ally X for myself, I would say, is the hefty price tag of RM4,299.

In a vacuum, it’s definitely a great console. But stacking it against the affordability of the Steam Deck, it might not hold up as strongly. Then again, the Steam Deck isn’t officially launched in Malaysia yet, though you can get it for around RM2,000 from sellers locally.

It boils down to what you want to play and how you play. If you enjoy playing heavy, high-performance games on the go, I don’t think you’d find anything more perfect than the ROG Ally X.

All I can say is that the ROG Ally X made gaming easy and fun for me. And, really, what more could you ask for from a gaming console?

VP Verdict is a series where we personally try and test out products, services, fads, and apps. Want to suggest something else for us to try? Leave a comment here or send the suggestion to our Facebook page.